Paul Taylor

Choreographer Class of 1985
location icon Location
New York, New York
age iconAge
55 at time of award
age iconDate Deceased
August 29, 2018
area of focus iconArea of Focus

About Paul's Work

Paul Taylor is a choreographer and the artistic director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company.

Though a commanding dancer himself, Taylor retired from performance in 1975 to dedicate himself fully to choreography.  Over the past fifty years, he has created more than one hundred and twenty new works for his company; and since the Royal Danish Ballet first performed Aureole in 1968, his works have entered the repertories of seventy-five ballet companies throughout the world.  Taylor has created seven dance telecasts for PBS, including Speaking in Tongues.  His dances, Company B, Funny Papers, and A Field of Grass, were performed in a 1996 PBS program entitled “The Wrecker’s Ball.”

Biography

His company has performed in more than four hundred and fifty cities, in over sixty countries.  He recently formed a second-generation company, Taylor 2, to carry on his performance tradition and to conduct outreach in schools along the Taylor style.  His autobiography, Private Domain (1987), is in its third printing and he is the subject of the documentary feature, Dancemaker (1999).

Taylor began his solo career in dance with the Martha Graham Dance Company (1955-62) and the New York City Ballet (1959), while at the same time presenting his own work in concerts in the U.S. and abroad.

Last updated January 1, 2005.

Published on July 1, 1985

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